Yuanhe poetry sequences: a new look.
McCraw, David
At a very few times in literary history, great poets have turned
their energies to compiling poetic sequences. The Elizabethans, Heian
and slightly later Japanese waka poets, a great many modern poets from
Dickinson on, and a few Tang poets after Du Fu all wrote high-quality
poetic sequences. It's worth examining sequences by Han Yu and Meng
Jiao to help answer the following questions: Why and under what
conditions do poets turn to sequences? What kinds of pressure and plight
drive a poet to write linked verse after verse about the same theme
(rather than just writing a longer poem)?
You can arrange sequences in many different ways. Waka poetic
editors invented marvelous and unique ways of combining short verses
(tanka) based on progressions (seasonal, narrative) and subtle emotional
or imagistic associations. (1) Pre-modern British poets usually followed
well-trodden narrative, dramatic, and discursive ways to organize short
verses, but recently critical attention has preferred the subtler
lyrical organization governing works like Eliot's Four Quartets or
Yeats' Songs in Time of Civil War. (2) And the Tang poets? In an
earlier study, we demonstrated that each of Du Fu's great poetic
sequences followed a unique set of organizing principles, usually
involving subtler associations rather than obvious narrative
progressions, but not necessarily eschewing formal structural patterns.
(3) During the Yuanhe reign period (806-21), the great mid-Tang
"neoclassical" poets Han Yu and Meng Jiao each wrote
"Autumn Meditations" (Qiu huai) inspired in part by Du
Fu's "Autumn Arousal" (Qiu xing). (4) These and similar
sequences by Han and Meng deserve our close attention because they raise
classic questions about poetic sequences: how do poets marry the
intensity of short lyrical utterances with the weight and
transformational possibilities of extended verse structures? How can
they keep the sequence tightly linked and unified? And, in a tradition
that privileged short, lyrical utterances, what drove poets to essay so
arduous and unfamiliar a form?
Poetic sequences offer many challenges, and not only to poets
themselves. Readers face difficulties of their own. Instead of recalling
merely a short verse while reading exegeses, they have to keep in mind a
grand structure, with many movements or "stanzas"; while
envisioning organizing mainstays, they also have to keep a live eye for
repeated images, words, and motifs that help knit poems together.
Rosenthal and Gall speak of "overloading," which certainly
might addle devotees of, say, Pound's book-length Cantos.
Fortunately, the two sequences we will examine comprise only eleven and
nine verses, respectively; you could chant them both within five
minutes. Still, they have presented considerable challenges to readers.
We can only read in linear fashion, from word to word and line to line.
But the paradigmatic relations among words chosen--oversimplifying,
which do and do not work repetitions--demand a more "vertical"
approach. As far as we know, neither traditional Chinese nor modern
readers have managed to discover the sequential structural organization
informing Han Yu's "Autumn Meditations." In claiming to
have discovered such organization, we must of course remember the caveat
so well expressed by Adam Gopnik in a review of Shakespeare's
Sonnets, considered as a "sequence":
One should always be wary of ... a scholar insisting that there is
a pattern where before none has been seen, since scholars have an
overwhelmingly strong confirmation bias in favor of
patterns--finding patterns is what scholars do. (5)
While at least the West's most astute reader of Tang verse did
recognize "Wintry Creek" (Han xi) as a sequence, he rather
underestimated its tragic tenor and the demons that drove Meng Jiao to
create it. (6) Reading by reading, poetic criticism aspires to creep
toward better understanding; in that spirit, we translate and interpret
these two classic sequences anew.
We present our explications in two parts. With Han Yu's Autumn
Meditations, we must first and foremost overcome skeptics who, like
Gopnik, question whether this perceived sequential pattern really
exists. With Meng Jiao's Wintry Creek, our primary task becomes
more tonal than structural--we must demonstrate why we read the sequence
more pessimistically than most. With such different issues at stake in
each sequence, it makes sense to attack them a bit differently in
explication. With Han Yu (part 1), we shall begin by elucidating the
structure that informs his sequence, considering five overarching motifs
that help knit the eleven verses together. Then we shall proceed
sequentially, pointing out the "carry-over stitches" [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or "anadiplosis" that knit each verse
to its neighbor. (7) After refreshing our memories with a look at the
table arranging the principal repeated motifs, we return to examine some
dialectically unfolding motifs that Han employed to provide additional
"pattern," additional "fine-stitching" [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
With Meng Jiao, we need not reinvent any wheels by elaborately
"proving" sequential arrangement. Instead, we will begin by
reviewing the table for "Wintry Creek," then briefly consider
how it reveals Meng's inverted arch, or bridgelike structure. We
then examine some "carry-over" images, analyze some main
motifs that develop through the nine stanzas to highlight Meng's
dramatic conflict. We quickly pass through the nine verses, examining
the dark side of Meng's vision, before considering "Wintry
Creek" as dramatic psychotherapy.
PART 1: HAN YU, "AUTUMN MEDITATIONS" (806?,
CHANG'AN)
Indefatigable *mei? mei?, King Wen. Shijing 235.2 (8)
Indefatigable, Prince Shen. Shijing 259.2
Moving resolute, times pass me by. Chuci (9)
Each section gets a motto; this one highlights a polysemous
binome-word. Its better-known meaning comes from the "Court
Odes" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] so celebrated in Confucian
poetics. Let's remain on the look-out for how Han Yu wields it, to
see if his more introspective use does not belie simple
"Confucian" characterizations of Han Yu.
Stephen Owen's reading has nicely explicated Han's
concerns and the relation of "Autumn Meditations" to Han and
Wei verse. He and Charles Hartman have also deftly accounted for most of
Han Yu's allusive play, allowing us to annotate only certain
salient references. (10) Naturally, previous readings have left plenty
of room for fresh insight; after all, complex verse sequences don't
reveal all their secrets to any one explication by one critic at one
time. We may begin with "Autumn Meditations' "
background. On plausible literary historical grounds, Owen suggested Han
Yu wrote this in 812, after the heyday of Yuanhe exoticism. But most
traditional scholars, focusing on Han's political entanglements,
date "Autumn Meditations" to 806. Han had just returned from
southern "exile," full of hopes for his role in a new
emperor's court. After some months as a mere ritual specialist, an
"Erudite" of the National Academy in Chang'an, however,
factional strife and the realization that he had extremely limited
political influence forced Han to take stock and wonder about his place
in the world. "Autumn Meditations" has significant resonances
with the "Southern Alps" poem dated to 806, and the
government's new campaign against disloyal military governors fits
the "lamia" and other pests mentioned in Stanza IV. Let us,
then, tentatively follow scholars like Qian Zhonglian, Hanabusa Hideki
and Charles Hartman (11) and date this sequence to Fall, 806, most
likely to late November.
Received opinion holds that "Autumn Meditations," unlike
denser Tang sequences, forms merely a "series." This deserves
rethinking; when you recall the fundamental distinction that in a series
the poem-order matters little but in a sequence it makes all the
difference, a different answer suggests itself. Asserting likely
"sequential" structure demands a demonstration; we will begin
by quickly sketching overarching structural patterns, proceed to
translation, then examine structural links, both distal and proximal.
Then we shall discuss a few key integrating motifs and finish with some
conceptual considerations.
You can glean a first clue to sequencing by observing this
sequence's most "superficial" formal features, rhyme
class (for the moment, ignoring tones) and number of lines per
"stanza":
Verse # I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI
Rhyme -i -i an ing ing ing an an an ing ao
Line ## 16 10 14 12 12 10 18 20 14 14 10
Already rhyme-groups suggest that "Autumn Meditations"
I--II and XI (open-vowel rhymes) form a frame within which inner stanzas
(two interlocking sets of nasal codas) work some sort of interlaced
dialectic, a rhyming chiasmus framed as a-b-b-b, a-a-a-b. Lengths
suggest that II and XI will serve as codas for Han's introduction
and conclusion, that III--VI develop toward an agogic climax in
VII-VIII, reminiscent of the dramatic contour from sonata form in
classical music. Indeed, readers' judgment has hailed VIII as the
most famous and most anthologized section of "Autumn
Meditations."
Further analysis will, however, require readers' sustained and
informed attention. To that end, we offer a new translation of all
eleven poems below (underlines for binomes; italics for words with
special weight or emphasis, sometimes due to repetition). Thanks to the
painstaking work of Stephen Owen and Charles Hartman, we need not
thoroughly annotate Han Yu's allusions; we have, however,
highlighted in abbreviated form allusions and covert references to
Zhuangzi (Zz) (12) and related Daoist texts, for reasons that will
presently become clear.
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
I
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Before my window, a pair of fine trees:
Massed leaves aglow in gay glory. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
With Autumn wind's one riffling whisk, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
Swish and skirl, they sing without end. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
McCRAW: Yuanhe Poetry Sequences: A New Look
Fading lamp lights my empty bed;
Midnight--they must assail my ear.
Woe & sorrow arrive for no reason;
Stirred to sighs--manage to sit up.
At daybreak, I regard the face-- his own; leaves'
No longer like they used to look.
Helios spurs on the sun and moon: also: days and months
Mad haste--we can't count on them. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
Tho' living adrift follows many paths, allusion to Zz 15.12
Our dash to death takes just one track.
Why drown in your own suffering? [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]: "bitter";
we have finessed
"wildly," to enhance our
closure
Given brew, enjoy while you can.
II
Silvery dews down the hundred weeds;
Wort and orchid, equally worn away.
Growing green down by all four walls;
Revived anew, flooding the ground.
Cold cicadas soon stilled to silence;
Crickets ravish themselves in song.
Cycles phase without appointed end;
Nature's gifts to each--alas--contrast. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
Suiting the season, each takes its place;
Pine & cedar deserve no special esteem. or: need no high rank
III
Those seasons, how they press on--
My own resolve, how dilatory.
A Spike helm--tippler in vain;
A Sickleside--able to eat, still.
In my study hall, daily "naught to do";
Spurring my horse, off to suit myself.
Vague maze of roads out from my gate;
Wanting to leave, I make myself while ...
Back home I flip thru history books;
Fancy words, in a flood of millions.
Stale traces--whoever would chase? Zz 14.77
My low likings--no noble offering. or esteemed; allusion to
A great man's high aims will persist; Liezi 7.85
Only petty women multiply grievance.
Gongsun Yan, a disgruntled chief at
loose ends (quoted in line 5)
Lian Po, aging general eager to prove
he hadn't lost vigor (name fancifully
"translated," to make a parallel)
IV
Autumn's breath, daily falling forlorn; Tsrhik tsrhik
Autumn's void, daily trembling chiller. ling ling
Above--on the bough, no cicada;
Below--upon my plate, no flies.
Who's not stirred by the season?
Eye and ear rid of what's hateful.
In clear dawn, book closed, sitting;
South Alps show their highest ridge.
Down below in a crystalline pool
Lies a lamia--chilled, snareable.
Alas, I can't get to go there:
Who'd say I can't catch it up?
V
Cut apart, hung up in empty grief; lielie
Anguish gnaws--holding vain alert. tshek_tshek
Dews weep, aloft in Autumn trees;
Bugs mourn forever in wintry night.
Recoil, retreat--approaching new cares; Han Yu's public name
Bustle, dash on--lamenting past ires.
Back to folly, discern that level track; compare Laozi 20
Draw on antiquity--get a long wellrope. Zz 18.29
Even drifting fame still brings shame;
Its meager taste--really, I'm lucky!
Maybe I can put aside regret & blame,
And find right here a screened retreat.
VI
This morning never did manage to get up;
Just sat straight through, till daylight
died.
Bugs singing, my room screened gloomier;
Moon disgorged, window blazing bright.
Feelings of loss, as if erred on my way; possibly referring to Zz
Thoughts adrift, keener than a splinter. 8.18
Dust and dirt--lazy to stand in thrall;
Fancy words--let 'em rashly race ahead.
Still I have to force my stubborn balk--
In King's service for morning's audience.
VII
Autumn night--just can't make it dawn;
Autumn days--alas, how easily dark!
If I had no pressing, compelling aims, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]: Zz 29.52
(and elsewhere)
How come I've got all this remorse?
Wintry cock--in vain stuck on your
roost;
Waning moon--bugged by too much spying.
Taking up my zither, I fix stop and
string,
Strum again & again, ever fainter to
ear. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII], i.e., Han
Yu's formal name
Ancient music, long buried, blown out;
No way to tell the true from the swill.
Humbling my heart, dash on with my times;
Forcing--alas--can only last a moment.
Rather like riding a wind-borne boat:
Once loose, just can't get it moored.
Better to scrutinize fancy writings;
Mark and proof in lead & cinnabar.
Why must I demand more than enough?
All I need will fit in bushel and crock. perhaps echoing Han shu
85.3454 on peck-pint
talents: [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
VIII
Swirl and coil, leaves falling to earth,
Wind borne, racing before my porch.
Their song seems to have a meaning:
Whirl, twirl--chasing one another.
An empty hall at dun dusk;
I sit, mute--nothing to say.
My boy comes in from outside
And lights the lamp before me.
Asks after me--I don't answer;
Offers me food--I will not eat.
Retreats to sit by our west wall again, part of Han's public
& chant all thru folios of verse. name
That author's no man of this day, very likely Qu Yuan
Departed, gone--1000 years' time.
Something in his words strikes me,
Brings me back with vinegary pang.
I turn around and say: My boy,
Put down your book--sleep well.
Great men, preoccupied in thought,
Have deeds to do that never end...
IX
Frosty winds invade my paulownia;
Massed leaves wither, tree-stuck.
Down empty steps one slip drops,
Ringing like shattered tree-coral.
I say: night's breath has blown out;
Moondriver has meteored his globel borrowing a peerless phrase
From Stephen Owen
Dark-sky depths, naught to rely on;
Flight path too steep, scarcely safe.
Startled, I get up, go out to look;
Lean by a doorpost, copiously cry.
Woe & sorrow waste sundial shadows;
Sun and moon like bouncing balls. also: "days and months"
Back from erring, not counting how far, (cf. I)
For milord--halt this dusty saddle.
X
Sundown darkens, all who came depart;
Each common clamor stows its sound.
Biding remote, reclined in night's quiet; yuw yuw I&IS, also unendingly
long, of a Fall night
Indefatigable, holding in Autumn's light. * mei? mei?; also implacable,
of time's advance
The world s tangles march out concerns;
Outside woes invade my whole-heart.
Forced feelings won't stretch fully; [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN
ASCII], also "stronger
resolves"
Weaker broodings waned yet wax anew.
Twist and squirm to dodge word snares; * het khjut, allusion Zz
Dimly groping--touch of heart's blade. 24.110 (13)
mieng mwang, likely alluding
to Zz 23.51, Lushi chunqiu
24.384 (14)
allusion to Zz 20.38
Routed, I scruple to discard 1000 in
gold;
What's won--like glorious 1-inch grass.
He who knows shame: worth naming brave;
Silent repose---who could command you? [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]; allusion
to Zz 20.61
XI
Fresh & few, chrysanthemums in frost; sjen sjen
So late now--what use, your finery?
Flutter up, butterfly flirting with
scent; yang yang
Your existence--even unearlier yet.
As the cycle ends, the pair of you
meet;
Lithe & lovely, guard each other
& die. PjwonX lwan
West winds put dragon & snake to sleep;
Massed leaves daily wither away. tew kawX
Always have fates allotted it so--
Drowned, blown out--hardly worth saying,
eh? mjinX mjiet
To perceive Han Yu's sequential art, we must grasp the key
structural motifs that shape and support his sequence. These include
both distant resonances that join inner and framing stanzas and also
proximal patterns that help link each stanza to its neighbor. First,
let's highlight the distant links that form an architectural
structure for Han's sequence:
Frame (I--II and XI): Share Han's theme of fatalism in the
face of fell Autumn. Han repeats "fine(ry)" (1.1, XI.2),
"life/living/grow" (1.13, II.4; XI.4), and "death"
(1.14 [cf. "worn away" and "stilled" in II]; XI.6)
to evoke how each particular creature's fate in Nature's
cycles moves him. Indeed, tensions between time's arrow and
time's cycle (1.14, II.7; XI.5) mark a major framing theme. In II
Han finds cold comfort in the notion that "cycles phase without
appointed end," but by XI he has found inner resources that let him
accept "cycle's deadend." So end Han's shortest
stanzas. Both at beginning and in closure, Han proceeds with extraverted
rhetoric (in marked contrast to more "psychological" inner
stanzas); he treats his depression with fatalism (1.14, II.9; XI.9),
exhortations to enjoy each event in season (1.16, II.9; XI.1,3), and
rhetorical questions and denials that enjoin against special pleading
(1.15, II. 9; XI. 10). Beginning and end also feature a plethora of
atmosphere-heightening sound-symbolic binomes, which we have marked with
underlining. Finally, opening and closing stanzas frame with daylight,
after a long interior section in which "Autumn night--just
can't make it dawn."
Food (III and VIII): Share a theme of sustenance--the nourishments
of food, books, and human caring that make our short time pass
tolerably. Ill presents Han's "false try," an attempt
through physical and vicarious (literary) escape to maintain
"intent" over "grievance" (11.13-14). Only in
VUI.lOff., when Han's "son" (whether his own or a
symbolically filial page makes little difference) revives dead words,
can song resurrect our poet. Thus, III and VIII introduce and resolve
Han's problem with writing/wen, those "stale traces"
(III.ll) of long-dead men (VIII. 13-4). In both stanzas, Han plays the
"great man" with nothing to do, trapped in his
"vain/empty" habits (III.4) and hall (VIII.5). He plays off
family figures that either can help--"my boy" (VIII.7)--or
cannot--"petty women" (III. 14). Both stanzas feature a much
more introverted treatment than in Han's frame; in each verse an
exhortation "saves" him from despair and moves him toward a
positive declaration that his aims will "persist" and
"never end." These declarations ring out from a surrounding
pall of negative constructions (at least two in III; at least six in
VIII). In both cases, positive responses emerge from a dour battle in
which adversative "arousals" (III. 1 "press on";
VIII.l's dead leaves: "swirl and coil") threaten with
mortality, while initial responses (III.2 "how dilatory";
VIII.4-8's spiritual coma) lead to a crisis.
Dreams (IV and IX): Share visions of "disorder" (flies
and dragon in IV; moon's crash in IX) that invite political
allegorization and stimulate Han's assertion he would help his
ruler (IV. 1-2; IX. 14; the pool's dormant "lamia" could
conceivably also symbolize a recluse's potential (15)). But in IV
Han's effort proves vain; while IX repeats "vain/empty,"
Han closes with a stronger declaration. Both stanzas involve some
altered state--IV's concluding daydream and the nightmare vision
revealed as dream in IX.9. Both also recapitulate elements from
Han's opening; IV recycles I's strong response
"suffer/a/as!" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and its
two-scene, dawn-concluded structure; IX revives I's autumn wind and
proceeds from "vain" to a panicked view of sun and moon (days
and months ...) out of control. In both stanzas Han's approach
proceeds outward (in contrast to III, VIII) and ends with stillness. But
although both stanzas close with negations, IV's denial of
impotence rings hollow, while IX's undoing of error proves more
productive.
Stillpoint (V and X): Share a reclusive, "empty"
stillness in which Han has yet to fend off internalized enemies (esp.
V.I 1, X.5ff.). Both make multiple reference to inner states--concerns,
woes, cares, broodings, shame, and the like. But their tonality differs:
in V Han sits "cut apart" and "anguish-gnawed"
lielie, tshek tshek, while in X he "bides remote,"
"indefatigable" yuw yuw, *mei? mei?. Charles Hartman has
observed that V and X mark the climax of Han Yu's inventive
diction. (16) Both stanzas also invoke Laozi and Zhuangzi for spiritual
support, with advice to "discern the level track,"
"discard 1000 in gold," and so on. We will point out more
borrowings below; for now, let's add one from V.8: when Han speaks
of a "long wellrope," he has in mind Zhuangzi, "A short
wellrope cannot draw up from the depths." (17)
But V's troping sounds more negative--recoil, retreat, hide
out--while X resists--defend, recover, defy. V.8 "gets" only a
wellrope--a frail path out of deep depression--while X. 12
"wins" the glory afforded by peace of mind. (18) Four nearly
consecutive allusions to Zhuangzi outline the grueling process by which
Han works out his path. V ends hoping only to "screen out"
grief, unsure our recluse can hold out; but X, which began by screening
out, survives grief to close in peaceful affirmation, or at least
acquiescence. Both stanzas feature extremely introverted treatment; they
recommend self-restraint and overcoming desires for fame. V, however,
ends tentatively and stuck in darkness, putting off full resolution of
Han's internal crisis until X, when Han Yu's "dark night
of the soul" finally finds a therapeutic light.
Hollow Core (VI and VII): The sequence's fulcrum, present
Han's "hollow man" crisis. In these stanzas, Han's
seclusion leaves this latter-day Ruan Ji (210-263) trapped in isolation,
nothing to do, nothing to say, unable either to enjoy Nature's song
or respond convincingly with his own. Negatives abound; dawns never
happen (VI. 1-2, based on lines from an ancient elegy) or fail to yield
normal days (V.1). All seems "adrift" (V.6), unmoorable
(VI.14); writings lose their power, and he can only "force"
himself (V.9, VI.12) to (re)act. Both recapitulate opening elements: VI
recycles I's "sit up" and "drift,"
"racing" and "wild/ rash"; VII reworks I's
"bitter/a/or" and stirred-up emotions, "dash," and
"out of control." VI ends by anticipating dawn; in VII
midnight anguish and ennui prevent time from budging. In both stanzas,
again, Han burrows inward, finding meager sustenance and relief only in
superficial distinctions and in duties dully attended.
In addition, each stanza anticipates/resonates with its neighbor,
in that form of stanzaic anadiplosis in Chinese called the
"carry-over stitch" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. We have
already accounted for I--II as a structural unit. "Suit"
(II.9, III.6), "season," and "noble" all link II and
III; lofty trees segue into Han's "own resolve."
Transition from III--IV finds "grievance" refigured in
"forlorn" and "chill"; literary writings in both
stanzas prove unavailing. Both stanzas share a stout resistance; Lian
Po's trencherwork dissolves into IV's empty plate, but Han
still insists he's hale enough to do his duty. His sense of
emptiness [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] links IV-V; a man with
nowhere to go, he finds himself keeping "vain alert," a
frustrated teacher and would-be warrior "cut apart." IV's
opening binomes, falling forlorn tsrhik tsrhik [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN
ASCII] and trembling chiller ling ling, morph into V.l-2: Cut apart
lielie [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Anguish gnaws tshek tshek
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. In both verses, Han's a lost soul
seeking his dao. We have discussed VI-VII links. Their negativism
extends into VIII, which also shares VII's hollow-man failure to
respond; in both stanzas, music reduces to impotent "wind
borne" strains. VIII's eventual aroused response to
leaves' "flurry" yields, however, to emotional collapse
before a leaf's "single slip" in IX. These stanzas also
share a closing resolution. But IX's final commitment in defiance
of time's course then slips (X.3-10) into a darkness that reveals
the perils of emotional commitment; in each stanza "invade"
(IX. 1, X.6) and dangers (IX.8 "scarcely safe"; X.9-10
"snares" and "blade") provoke a crisis. Finally,
hard-won "glorious grass" and respite (X.12, 14) prefigure
Han's closing "fresh flowers" and reconciliation with
death; X's hard-won repose earns XI's "sleep" and
contentment.
To illustrate Han's poetic "fine-stitching," and to
help readers keep track of his stitches, we offer the table on p. 80. At
first glance, statistical minds might incline to tot up all links,
establish a "matrix of dissimilarity," and make a
multi-dimensional scaling analysis. But, since not all links have the
same quality, such an experiment will disappoint; it makes more sense to
evaluate linkages qualitatively. Of course, it does signify that total
links increase as you proceed through the sequence. Connections abound
as the dramatic and thematic conflicts reach a climax (VII-IX), win
resolution (X), and then taper in XI, which forms the denouement of
"Autumn Meditations." Once you perform qualitative analyses,
you will notice quite a few more linking features within Han's
sequence. (19)
While we hardly plan an exhaustive account, one further point about
sequential links needs adding. As "Autumn Meditations" trudges
on into and out of despair, Han's interstanzaic movements often
proceed dialectically, not smoothly. For example, swings from
extraverted treatment to introversion characterize many transitions: II,
IV, IX, and XI run "outward"; but III, V-VIII, and X turn
inward. A similar dialectic informs Han's responses to questions of
public service. He tries for seclusion in III, then opts for service in
IV; V hopes for "screening off," VI looks forward to morning
audience; VII opts to eke by, VIII asserts greatness; IX makes
Han's boldest claim to help "milord," then a last
reversal in X apparently resolves the issue by claiming peace in
"silent repose" (though the dormant dragon at cycle's
"dead-end" offers potential for reascendance). (20) Such
oscillating dialectics prove a key structural principle in "Autumn
Meditations"; they reveal the machineries by which Han helps solve
inner conflicts. Thus, despite testimony that Han just ad hoc
"chooses whichever response seems satisfying or appropriate to the
situation," (21) we must look more closely.
Several more unifying motifs need highlighting to enhance our
demonstration that "Autumn Meditations" works as a sequence.
First, negation; we have already marked a few salient instances where
Han deploys "empty/vain" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and
negative adverbs. Negations peak in IV and again in VIII, where the
declaration "never end" proves ephemeral. Kong still haunts
Han in IX; only by confronting his own ambitions--"touch of
heart's blade"--squarely in X can Han find peace in stillness.
Compare "blown out" mjiet [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in
VII.9 and IX.5; only at sequence's end can Han face that prospect
with equanimity. By contrast, later stanzas raise a crisis of
"having" you [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. In VI Han
"has" only tomorrow's court levee to keep him living, to
set against "never did manage." But in VII, three negative
constructions match three you (4: "got"; 6:
"taking"; 13: "rather"). The less Han has, the more
you obsesses him; in VIII, again, three you (3, 15:
"something"; 20) attempt to balance a plethora of negatives.
Only when Han makes peace with ending "drowned, blown out"
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] can he fall silent. At closure--as
elsewhere in "Autumn Meditations"--absence trumps presence, at
least potentially an unexpected, "Daoist" trope.
This leads us to consider sound and music in "Autumn
Meditations." We begin with the sounds of leaves (1.4) and bugs
(II.5-6) that, in good old Chinese stimulus-response fashion, arouse
Han's lyric responses. We follow such faltering melodies until VII,
when Han fails to make convincing response. Only when his
"boy" shows him the revived power of 1 iving language (VIII.
15-6) can Han feel again; in IX the ringing fallen leaf provokes his
"long cry." With this authentic response, Han gets in touch
with his feelings, and by X can fall silent, having expressed his *mei?
mei? resolve. A musically inclined critic might well speak of
"motivic development" in "Autumn Meditations."
Verbs of motion/travel provide another leitmotif. Often they
heighten the tension between linear and cyclic time, as in I's
"spur" and "dash" against II's
"cycles" and "suiting." These return at coda as XI
resolves "flutter" into "die," when all creatures
find their little lives "rounded with a sleep." As Han's
sequence progresses, his "wavering" intensifies: III
"spurs" to no avail except a decision to stay put; IV sees Han
"stirred" but unable to move. In V Han recoils/returns from
"dashing," but in VI he just sits "lost, adrift,"
reluctant to "recklessly race." VII demonstrates the
uselessness of forced "dashes" and a wind-borne boat; better
VIII's "death-in-life" persistence against racing leaves.
IX's meteoring moon and bouncing-ball luminaries resolve into
"return" and "halt." Oddly, critics have read IX as
Han bidding farewell to a Yuanhe exoticism dismissed as "gone
astray while returning"; they misread IX.13. Upon noticing
Han's use of an Yijing hexagram, you will appreciate that mifu
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] should stress not "gone
astray" (as if the construction were verb-object) but "back
from straying" (mi, setting preconditions for the main verb fu).
Such misreading can set a critic off on a fantasy errance of his own.
(23) In fact, Han's fancy has not proved far wrong; on waking,
he's reduced to tears when he realizes time ("sun and
moon") really are bouncing along wildly; the political implications
of such cosmic disarray afford a less strained reading for
"milord" than traditional or recent ones. But let's
return ... In X Han self-prescribes "flight" against attack,
but must walk a twisty path to self-confrontation before he can win
rest, a Daoist repose that finds equilibrium with Nature's closing
quietus.
Lofty ambitions/intents [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] also help
give this sequence a definite, distinctive shape. The slow descent of
"Autumn Meditations" into a Slough of Despond (by stanzas
VI-VII) gets traced in the progression from (I) aging and sorrow to (II)
"pines and cedars need no special esteem," which can also mean
"they need no high rank." Han Yu here asserts that his
self-worth and high purposes will need no buttressing from external
rewards and status. But we find it hard to believe him; in III his
enduring [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] leads to a meditation on
ancient worthies who met with too little royal reward. Then Han ruefully
calls his own likings "lowly, ignoble" before asserting that
his "great man's high aims" deserve higher approbation
than whatever women want. His wordplays on "esteemed/noble"
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] seem to probe an unresolved conflict.
In IV he hopes to win merit against a "lamia," but laments he
has no chance to prove himself. As he slips deeper into depression, V
finds Han abjuring himself to "recoil, retreat" and
"return to folly." He declares himself reconciled to the
"meager taste" of his current status, but VI just finds him
sinking deeper. Now he admits he's "lost his way," and
has extreme difficulty even rousing himself for morning audience. By
VII, he must ruefully admit his "pressing, compelling aims"
have simply led to remorse; the closing assertion of contentment with
meager salary rings false. In VIII the poet seems nearly dead; only
emergency resuscitation allows him to re-assert his status among
"great men .../With deeds to do that never end." IX finds Han
at or near total breakdown, though he ends by declaring himself
"back from erring" and ready to lend "milord" a
helping hand. X plumbs the depths; an "indefatigable" aim
meets the burdens/tangles of the age. They war, and Han declares himself
"routed," retreating to a position of calm from which he can
deny any external "command." As far as "Autumn
Meditations" goes, this seems to resolve things. The last stanza no
longer worries about high aims and status, and this allows our poet to
"accept his fate."
A closely related, unremarked aspect of "Autumn
Meditations" needs recognition. Han opened with a suitably
Confucian set of mottoes involving the binome *mei? mei?, which the Odes
used to praise an indefatigable hero like King Wen and with which Han
advances the climactic soundplays of X. But in Chuci **mei? mei? had
already modulated to the implacably resolute advance of time. Indeed,
faced with political frustrations, mutability, and mortality, Han needs
to find firmer ground than a Ruist service ethic. Already in III.3 Han
used a "Spikehelm" (the gaur or rhino horn helmet of a War
Minister) allusion in a Zhuangzian way. In a late Zhuangzi chapter, War
Minister Gongsun Yan figured in a hawk-dove "Maul" and
"Bash" account of political intrigue (24) that foreshadows
Han's disillusion with court wrangling. Stanzas V and X intensify
and then climax Han's internal meditation with multiple Daoist
allusions. Soundplay reaches a crescendo in X.7-10 with chiastic
interplay of (framing) yang and (pivotal) yin finals (nasal ending vs.
open-ended or voiceless-stopped):
gjangX hwej trjang pvuwX manX
nyak nemH khwet yiH yeng
*het khjut pjieH ngjoX tsjengX
mieng mwang tsyhowk sim pjaeng.
In the pivotal inner lines (X.8-9), yin (and especially
end-stopped) finals predominate; in 7 yang interruptus stresses the
futility of Han's stretched bow, while in 10 a single yin final
"strike" dominates the yang-final "blade/weapon."
Han's yin-yang soundplay reinforces his Laozian message; faced with
attack and danger, flee and pursue an inward-turning "philosophy of
camouflage." But this advice does not guide Han's inner
journey for long; not Laozi but fragments from outer chapters of
Zhuangzi actually orchestrate Han's ultimate inner breakthrough.
Previous annotators have noticed the "discard gold ... preserve
one's 'child' " allusion to Zhuangzi', (25)
they missed less conspicuous references. (26) "Twist &
squirm" *het khjut recalls a homophonous binome from Zhuangzi
chapter 24; (27) the "snare of words" recalls the famous
conclusion of Zhuangzi chapter 26; and the "heart's
blade," while attributable to several sources, recalls this
sentence from Zhuangzi chapter 23: "Of weapons/ blades, none
deadlier than heart's own aim." (28) Commentators have missed
these resonances partly because some look fairly covert, but chiefly
because they don't expect good Confucian Han Yu--who also wrote a
commentary on Zhuangzi--to find needed inspiration from a Daoist (maybe
this helps explains why some commentators find stanza X's inner
meditation "virtually unintelligible"). Yet Han's real
battle lies within himself, a war of "this and that/ right and
wrong" he can balance only by finding the "center of the
ring." No surprise, then, that Han ends with a resolve to
"repose tranquilly," alluding to Zhuangzi chapter 20,
"Sages reposedly embody passage and meet their end." (29) Two
of Han's allusions concern two of the three versions from Zhuangzi
chapter 20 relating how Confucius got beset between Chen and Cai. The
second account, which mentions Lin Hui, ends with Confucius "ending
his studies and discarding his books," thereby winning even greater
affection from his disciples. The third account ends with Confucius
learning how to "pass on tranquilly." (30) Easy to see how
these lessons may have inspired Han Yu, our troubled Imperial
Academician! These allusions (and by the end of X we have encountered
twelve more-or-less obvious references to Daoist classics) do not just
play with words; the retreat from "strong/forced" to
"supple/ weak," the "twist and squirm to dodge word
snares," and dodge "heart's blade" as well, enabling
a retreat to recover an inner child that culminates in tranquil
repose--this maps out a spiritual resolution to psychological crisis
marked at every turn with signposts from Laozi and Zhuangzi. Though
Han's Daoist therapy and resolution might have escaped younger
eyes, it could hardly have been missed by ninth-century contemporaries.
Quite possibly, Confucian revivalist Han's reference to Daoist
texts conveyed an accommodating message to colleagues and enemies bound
up in Yuanhe factional strife. (31) But we may take away a different
message; Han exorcises inner demons and ends his lengthy meditation on
living, dying, and transforming with references to butterfly/-ies, to
the "withered ... wood" that recalls entranced Nanguo Ziqi,
and with his last word, dao ("say/way"). After multiple
references to Daoist classics in the previous ten stanzas, it seems
impossible here not to think of Zhuangzi, chapter 2. Skeptics
indifferent to context will consider these less than plain
"allusions." Indeed, we need a subtler word to describe Han
Yu's delicate dance, which never quite gives the game away in so
many words. So much the better; Laozi and Zhuangzi would agree that a
little indirection best approaches dao. "Autumn Meditations"
has turned out, then, to work something like modern therapy. Meditation
on Daoist texts has guided Han through a psychological set of
introspective "self-help" sessions which, by sequence's
end, have enabled him to face living and dying with equanimity.
PART 2: MENG JIAO, "WINTRY CREEK" (808?, LOYANG)
(A valued Master) mince-pickles/blends [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN
ASCII] the myriad kine yet isn't deemed right. mince-pickles
/blends the myriad kine yet isn't deemed cruel. (Ruist-Mohist
disputes) mince-pickles/blend each other with thyes and thnot [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (32)
Meng Jiao's sequence, it bears warning, confronts readers with
some pretty ugly "mince-pickling." The textual controversy
from Zhuangzi, with its argument about whether "blend" or
"hash" fits better, bears application to "Wintry
Creek." It remains to determine whether, as some readers have
argued, Meng also convincingly "blends" relations between the
human and natural realms.
All readers of "Wintry Creek" owe Stephen Owen a large
debt for first focusing scrutiny on Meng's relatively neglected
sequence and for demonstrating its great poetic value. Naturally,
certain less-illuminated aspects deserve a second look. We may begin, as
with "Autumn Meditations," by considering its likely
historico-biographical provenance. In 806 Meng Jiao's patron, Water
and Land Transport Commissioner Zheng Yuqing, got him a sinecure in
Zheng's transport office. Meng settled on the north bank of a
stream quite near Loyang, where he built a small kiosk for
"Engendering Life." Thus, we need not imagine Meng outside
freezing through every moment of this next sequence. Details of
Meng's career imply that he wrote this either during the Spring
either 807 or 808. "Wintry Creek" does not resonate with other
verses dated to 807, but it shares many features--too many to relate
here--with his dirge-series "Apricots Die Young" (Xing shang)
written upon the deaths of his young sons at the beginning of (lunar)
Spring, 808. (33) When reading lines like III.3 and VII.8 below, keep in
mind these images from "Apricots Die Young":
Frozen hand, don't toy with these pearls ... Flash-frost, don't
shear away Spring ... Freezing cold, frost kills off Spring; limb
after limb, like tiny knives.
Let us imagine this poem, then, taking shape during February 808.
(34) Owen quite rightly observes that here Meng "exploits the poem
sequence to the fullest." (35) But subsequent assertions about the
power of Meng's "moral stand," his faith in the power of
Confucian ritual, and certain details of understanding demand we revisit
Meng's sequence. First, we should add some salient details about
"Wintry Creek's" organization. A cursory glance at length
and rhymes suggests Meng's sequence will pivot around its central
stanza:
Verse # I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX
Rhyme -en -i -i ing -en -ou -ou an -en
Line ## 14 16 14 14 22 8 10 10 12
These rude statistics also suggest that I and IX will frame, that
II--III will cohere to develop Meng's opening, that IV will
intensify by deviating from pattern, and that V will provide the central
link that climaxes I-IV and in turn prepares a resolution by IX. VI-VII
will then together explore a further development (even as the shorter
stanzas hasten us onward), VIII will deviate from pattern, and IX will
resolve the entire sequence. Observe, too, that after Meng's
introduction, a neat two-by-two pattern of alternation between
nasal-ending and open-ended rhymes also helps shape "Wintry
Creek." Readers may verify these projections shortly. For now,
enough to realize that Meng has wrought a neater, more symmetrical
architecture than Han Yu. Perhaps through a process of emulation and
genteel competition, Meng's arch-formation has approached something
like an Ursatz. In reexamining Meng's verses, we begin (of course)
with a translation.
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
I
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Frosts wash all watery hues away; sriang siei: swi: siok
tsien:
Wintry Creek reveals silky scales. han khej hen- syem lin
Regally inspect this empty mirror,
Reflecting a body haggard & worn. tsyew- tshje: dzan
dzwij- [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] syin
Sunken slick--no hiding itself now;
Showing its bottom, luster renewed.
Wide open like a gentleman's heart:
Could it imperil and cut folk down? as usual in Tang verse, read
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN
ASCII] as rhetorical
interrogative
tshjen: zjowk [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Now I realize--shallow common hearts
Harden by night, let you ford by dawn.
Purifying rinse--1 palmful of jewels
Melts far away 1000 cares about dust.
Now I know--mud-trodden streams
Mustn't neighbor an alpine spring.
II
The road along Loyang's bluffs;
The creek before Meng family farm.
My boat moves, pale ices crack,
Music making azurine moans. syeng tsak tsheng yew sej
Green waters harden green jade,
White waves grow white tablets.
Bright, brighter--in a precious mirror;
Kine upon kind evened in heaven's glow. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
By oblique steps, down to a perilous
crook;
Clamber dead boughs, hear a widow's
weep. usually associated with
sad birds
Overnight frosts bit by bit abate; sjuwk srjang sraw- sjew gjet
[one text reads "fragrant"]
Gelid light blended in faint blur. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN
ASCII]
Sitting dumb, listen and stare straight;
Walking witless, I lose my own tracks.
Up layered bluffs, tried by hacking
thorns; tsyowk kik
My words alight mostly on grief.
III
At dawn I drink one cup of brew;
Traipsing snow I visit Clear Creek. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
Each wave & ripple frozen to knives,
Chopping gouging at widgeon & teal.
Roosting feathers shorn all away;
Bloodsoaked sounds sunk in sand & mud. xwet syeng drim sra nej
Standing apart--what could I say?
Brooding mute--heart's sour moan. swan sje
Frozen blood, don't turn to Spring;
Turn to Spring & life'll grow uneven. tsak tsyhwin srjeng
pjuw: dzej
Frozen blood, don't turn to flower--
Turn to flower & trigger widow's weep. srjang
Gloom-hidden, needle-thorn thorp; kik tsyim tshwon
Frozen dead--hard to till and plow.
IV
My punter pole hammers out jade stars,
The whole way trailing burst fireflies.
North freeze--mourn right to the bottom;
Predator-gluttons sing odes to rank-fish. dzyem seng
Icy teeth grind and gnash each other;
Windy tones sour clapper and chime. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
No fleeing from cleartuned griefs [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
That wash each wisp within hearing. sej: tsyhwit syem sit theng
Jeweled waves, all rolled away;
Bright birds fly, falter, fall ...
Stepping down--slippery, uncertain;
Roosting aloft--snap! hard to rest. dzjang sej tsyejt
Shriek squawk swallow in grievance; xew- lew- xep sap
Look up and sue: when to find peace?
V
One crook one straight--the watercourse;
White dragon--such squamous scales! linjin
A frozen blast, with chop suey keening; dzop swij
Mince-pickle tone, gorge & gulch acetic. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
On w-wooden p-pad--ch-ch-chattering
ineptly;
Fliers, creepers more mildly humane to
each. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
My fierce bow--once your string snaps-- [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
With last gasp--vying as honored guests.
Greatest awe fully established here,
Little murders no longer deployed. sjew; sret
Sparkle white--how sparkling white; [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
Vapors vital, still more vapors vital.
Auspicious clearing scours sun & moon;
Jewels on high disclose planet & star.
Standing apart, feet paired in snow,
Intoning alone, 1000 cares renew.
Heaven's Despoiler--your brilliance
wasted; a baleful comet--omen of
disaster (36)
Sky-sieve's Tongue--champing chops
in vain. Songs 203: constellation
associated with gluttony,
slander
Yao as Sage will not listen to such as
you;
Confucius humbled--still we have an
aide. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]; or "greatly
straitened," also a
live meaning (37)
My protest report complete at last;
Ancient honor hard to fully deploy.
VI
When we take the frozen dead to eat,
Murderous airs won't cease to blow.
Wield weapons to effect kindness & honor,
& kindness, honor spring from knifepoint.
Kindness, honor at knifepoint smell rank; M
Hardly things a gentleman may seek.
Wave on wave draw out sword-icicles,
Cleave each other like avenging foes.
VII
Pointed snows poke the fish's heart;
The fish's heart flushes acuter rue.
Vaguely, as though a Shade-river spoke, wangliang; *mang? rang?
Lamenting the course of hacking apart. kat tshet
Who let breath of an alien clime
Poke into our heartland's flow?
Shearing away one whole month's Spring; tsjen: dzin: ?jit njwot
tsyhwin
Shutting off a hundred gulches in gloom. phjiek .. bak kuwk ..
Look up, cherish new cleared light
Shining down--I wonder at my woes.
VIII
Old creekman wailing in worst
winterchill;
Rheum and snivel ice with coralline
clink. thej: sij: ...
Forms of fliers dead, creepers dead;
Snow-sundered, mincing heart & guts. sjwet ljet ...
Swordblades, frozen, cannot gouge;
Bowstrings stiffened won't shoot.
Ever I've heard a gentleman warrior
Won't eat spoils from Heaven's kill. sret dzan
Hacking jade, I cover bones, carcass; tsyowk njowk .. kak
Mourning rosegems keen, stream down.
IX
Creek winds dispatch the remnant ice;
Creek glints hold bright Spring within.
Jade melts, flower-petals drip-drop; snowflakes
Dragon dissolved glitters squamous
scales.
By thin-air steps, down to clear crook
In melt-time to bathe in fragrant ford. sjew .. drewk .. tsin
1000 leagues, where ice sundered,
One ladleful, warm and humane. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
Gelid seedsouls wash each other, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]: essence/seed/sperm
/germ/gleam/soul
Ripple & wavelet vie in renewal.
Suddenly, as if--all sword-gashes gone--
first rouse this hundred-battled body.
Readers have had relatively little trouble seeing "Wintry
Creek" as sequence, largely because it features such a strong story
line and such lurid dramatic conflicts. At first we wonder why our poet
harbors such dire misgivings about a creek "wide open like a
gentleman's heart," but soon he reveals it as some sort of
murderous monster, a dragon or lamia, engulfing its "prey"
like a cold constrictor. After some cruel killings and feeble protests,
a warm front brings back the "humane" world very like
Meng's opening, only wearier.
Aside from this overarching dramatic structure, a great deal of
"fine-stitching" helps knit the sequence together. To
illustrate the dense texture of images in "Wintry Creek," (38)
we offer another mnemonic in Table 2 (p. 90).
Warned by our previous experience with Han Yu, we shall not
encourage elaborate statistical analysis. A careful look at our chart
will reveal that Stanza I links most with stanzas II, III, and closing
IX; stanza II also links closely with III and Meng's conclusion;
stanza III also links closely with IV, which in turn links closest with
V. Of course, every stanza has links to apical V, Meng's longest
and climactic verse. Short stanzas VI and VII link closest with each
other, while VIII-IX cleave to each other, and also with Meng's
opening. These ties reinforce our strong sense of Meng's meticulous
sequential architecture, which deserves careful comparison with that of
"Autumn Meditations." Unlike with Han Yu's verse, we have
no "sequence" controversy here, so we can eschew extensive
proof. We shall let our table express proximal structural links and pass
on to examining motifs that particularly reward close scrutiny.
First, let us adumbrate a few significant motifs in "Wintry
Creek" that belie simple blackwhite assessments of its themes and
progress:
Metals/jewels: The "empty mirror's" (1.3,5) luster
and purifying "jewels" (1.11) seem promising, but
"harden" and turn "gelid" in II; by III we confront
a deadened "needle-thorn thorp." The "jade stars"
and heavenly "jewels" in IV/V register ambivalently; only when
the "coralline clink" of "mourning rosegems" from
VIII thaws into melted "jade" at sequence's end can we
view Meng's jewels as unambiguously positive.
Icelfreezing-, these intensify from "frost" and
"harden" (1.1,10) to "frozen knives" (III.3),
"icy teeth" (IV.5), and "sword-icicles" (VI.7).
"Frozen" itself occurs no less than four times in III, and
occurrences of "snow" sjwet deserve special attention because
they sound homophonous with and often accompany or suggest occurrences
of "blood" xwet (see esp. III. 21F.; V.l5; VII. 1; VIII.4).
Even in closure, we still encounter "gelid" and two instances
of "ice." On the other hand, liquid images, especially of
"washing" (I, IV; cf. "scours" in V, IX), never
disappear even during the coldest spell. Here, too, attempts at
purification succeed only in closure (IX).
Weapons/war: these closely track instances of metal and ice/snow.
Here again we encounter auxesis climaxing with a battle in V heightened
by two different uses of "deploy," one military (V.12), one
rhetorical (V.22), which emphasize Meng's struggle to speak on
bleeding creatures' behalf. Note the persistence of weapons and
war-images throughout "Wintry Creek's" second half,
including Meng's "hacking" burial implement (VIII.9) and
his concluding "vie ... sword gashes ... hundred-battled."
Animals I corpses', these seem to begin with the mourning
birds, i.e., "widow's weep" in II. 10/III. 12, and expand
to include wild ducks (III), all "fliers/creepers" (V, VIII),
and fish as well (IV, VII). Bodies begin to fall in III and accumulate
with several references to murder, until Meng buries them in VIII. But
this account forgets something; the first "body" in
Meng's sequence refers to Wintry Creek--and Meng reflected in that
creek. Similarly, the carnage ends only with creek, creatures, and Meng
himself all arousing a "body of 100 fights." From its first
"body haggard and worn" to its end, "Wintry Creek"
never lets us separate Meng from prey, predators, and killing, which all
"form one body"--[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (to misuse a
stock phrase from traditional Chinese criticism).
Clearing tsieiH [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], glow/reflect,
light: these seem similarly attractive in I and 11.8, which adds
"leveled/blended" dzej (cf. tsiei "mince pickles")
to clear skies. But the clearing skies in V do not necessarily bode well
for beleaguered creatures, while the clearing in VII.9-10 just makes our
poet wonder. Only the return of "bright Spring" in closure
resolves our poet's ambivalent treatment.
Numbers: salient occurrences pair "one" with a
"thousand" (1.11-2; V.15-6; IX.7-8); while the first and last
instances read positively, that in V sounds ominous. Similarly, other
uses of "one" (V.l, VII.7) don't necessarily evoke
confidence in nature's order.
Gentleman [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: this valorizing term
should always sound positive, but note how it appears paired
agonistically with killers/murderers in 1.7-8; V. 17-20; VI.5-6;
VIII.7-8. A similar tension occurs with Meng's usage of
"humaneness and honor" renyi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
In V.6 we first encounter ren ascribed to animals, as opposed to human
"predator-gluttons" (IV.4); Meng himself finds ancient
"honor" hard to live up to (V.22). In VI we encounter false
renyi that spring from man's weaponry and smell "rank" as
the predator-glutton's coveted fish. Only after Meng's
honorable gesture in VIII do we finally encounter "humane"
(IX.8), but it's the stream's ren, not just a person's.
Words/sound/protest: these begin with sad "crack" and
"moan," "weep" and "grief" (II) and
intensify with "bloodsoaked sounds" and protests against blood
(III), reaching a crescendo with "Shriek squawk swallow in"
(IV) and Meng's attempted memorial in V, which at first chatters
against the freezing wind's "chop suey keening" and
"mince-pickle tone," then rails against slander, and finally
stammers laboriously of Yao and Confucius. But bloody protests continue,
as the demon complains (VII.2-6); wailing and mourning prevail until his
final stanza. Despite his protests, the many voices/mouths in
Meng's sequence voice not objection but appetite; see esp. IV.4-6
with its "sour" wind, V.3-4 with its "mince-pickle
tone," and the gluttonous stars in V.17-8. This blood-chorus of
prey and predator drowns out Meng; only balmy breezes in IX. 1 finally
manage to disperse the chorus crying for blood.
Several patterns in concert begin in I, recur at apical stanza V,
and bow out in closure, as we have begun to see. When you compare him
with Han Yu, Meng has increased the intensity and sophistication of his
"motivic development." Another important pattern, mutuality
Teach other" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], begins promisingly
with man and stream in apparent mutual harmony (1.4). In V.6 dying
creatures almost evoke a "Peaceable Kingdom" vision of mutual
harmony. But in IV. 4 "each other" refers to Nature red in
tooth and claw; in VI.8 it recurs in closure as "cut each other
like avenging foes." Only with "wash each other" (IX.8)
do we recover amiable mutuality.
Contrast occurrences of alone/lone/apart, which evoke our poet in
crisis, as in III.7 and V. 15. The word "renew" [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] traces a similar trajectory; in I the stream
renews "luster," but in V. 16 "1000 cares" renew.
Only with IX. 10 do we regain Spring renewal. Even references to a
"dragon" and its scales follow the same pattern: the
stream/dragon appears ambivalently in I (potentially a positive
self-image for a gentleman recluse, but also a potential killer) and in
V (where whiteness seems to evoke deadliness even more than clarity);
finally, in IX's suddenly "peaceable" kingdom, the
"dragon dissolves."
We can leave full analysis of these image-skeins for readers;
enough now to get familiar with their main outlines--their grundgestalt,
as musical critics might say--and assure yourselves of Meng's
almost obsessively dense weave before thoroughly imbuing yourselves in
his entire sequence.
Our main reason for revisiting "Wintry Creek" involves
overturning oversimplified statements of Meng's theme. We have an
assertion that Meng, the "moral man confronting an evil world ...
by his unswerving integrity overcome[s] it." (39) This statement
surprises, because traditional Chinese ethical stimulus-response
miracles usually depended on the moral nature of the entire world,
without which virtue could not influence the cosmos. But this optimistic
reading requires two elements: first, it needs a moral hero of
extraordinary stature and power--Saint Meng. Second, it needs a
resolutely moral natural order to respond with a miracle. Stephen Owen
has recognized the exceptional nature of the demands placed on
"Wintry Creek." He observes that no other Meng Jiao sequence
reaches a "happy ending"; he also writes that, in a
ninth-century context, belief in moral purity's "magic power
over nature" seems "most unusual." (40) What he finds
unusual, we find unbelievable. Meng, while striving earnestly for purity
and goodness, has no claim upon sainthood; the natural order on display
in "Wintry Creek" obeys no theological constraints to behave
well. We can well believe Meng wanted to and, perhaps, intended to make
an optimistic scenario work. But a careful rereading uncovers too much
gray area, too many murky details that complicate relations among grief
and conscience, outrage and appetite. Let's review Meng's
sequence to point out where it belies an optimistic "miracle"
reading.
Meng's ambivalences begin right in stanza I. He can't
make up his mind whether the creek symbolizes purity or, as becomes
evident, foulness. The uneasy sibilants in lines 1, 4 (where Meng makes
entrance), and 11 whisper of covert evil. Moreover, when Meng observes
his image in Wintry Creek, the "body haggard & worn" he
superimposes man on stream. He then attributes to the stream a
"gentleman's heart," a pathetic fallacy revealing how he
identifies himself with Wintry Creek. Yet, despite his contention that a
sip from the creek offers a "purifying rinse," Meng realizes
immediately that this creek has killed, conceals evil, and stands guilty
of "mud-trodden" befoulment. Hardly an auspicious way to paint
yourself as saint in some divinely inspired moral setting!
Owen correctly reads stanza II as revealing "Wintry
Creek's" ugly, evil face. This portrait of a cruel world
intensifies in III-IV. To understand III.3-5 properly, we must know a
little about migrating wildfowl. It won't help to imagine dumb
ducks destroyed by dive bombing ice because they "mistakenly
believed they were landing on water." Rather, imagine weary
migrants misled by false Spring, toiling on in search of open water and
food. Previous thaws will have opened creek channels that a single
night's freezing snap and frost-heave can close. If exhausted,
starving ducks get trapped; they may prove too weak or weary to escape,
or they may not escape without losing a bit of blood and feathers, or
they may lose blood, feathers, and more to nearby predators. (41)
Meng's horrified attempt to "stand apart" from this
slaughter does not succeed; rather, he's implicated, much as Du Fu
gets implicated in his poem "Standing Apart," where Stephen
Owen very deftly explores the poet's implication with mayhem. (42)
This idea gets foregrounded in IV.4, when Meng sighs: "no
fleeing" from songs of "predator-gluttons" that certainly
at least include human hunters. Owen himself has called Meng an
unusually hungry poet, who often characterizes himself as famished. (43)
You can't help but wonder if the singing "predators" do
not in a sense include our bard; if "no fleeing" does not
extend to Meng himself? Where could he flee to escape the chorus of
eater and eaten?
V reaches a climax signaled by formal features, such as wordplays
and other soundplay. In Meng's medieval Chinese the harsh-sounding
"chop suey" dzop swij-[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and his
bizarre use of "mince-pickle" and "acetic/harsh" to
describe storm winds take away our breath. They renew our suspicion that
guilty hunger colors his perception. Meng himself cannot find voice to
answer this sonic onslaught; at this point, he still "stands
apart" in shock, as yet unable to muster a responding protest. Note
that even when Meng tries to "stand apart" he stands with feet
"paired in snow " sjwet--a medieval Chinese near-homophone for
blood xwet--beset by one thousand cares. Vehement rhetoric--as so often
in Meng's verse--overlays intense inner conflict. (44) Clever puns
in V.7--his "fierce bow"--and V.10--"sparkle
white"--reveal that we cannot see his role as completely innocent.
Meng "fierce" puns on his surname Meng; jiao "white"
puns on his given name Jiao. These wordplays implicate Meng--who after
all is only human--with murderers; clearwhite does not put him in the
clear, because even clearing Heaven has become a residence for villains.
Meng does not merely explore his inner brute; building on Han Yu's
"Autumn Meditations," Meng's "Wintry Creek"
turns self-reflexive nameplay to even greater artistic account. (45)
Arguably, Meng builds on Han Yu's example in another way; much as
in Han's "Autumn Meditations" IX, Meng Jiao probably
invests his anti-slander diatribe with contemporary political
significance, about whose exact contours we need not speculate. His use
of Ode #203, which records the lament of Eastern outsiders against
Western-capital abuse, would work perfectly for an opposition-faction
poet writing from Loyang complaining about abuses from Chang'an.
And, of course, wintry cold fits the traditional association between yin
atmospheric omens and political abuse, a typical Yuanhe trope. (46)
Meng's ambiguous language double-cuts at every turn; even the
positive-sounding "vapors vital" yunyin sound less concordant
when we recall Meng used them twice in "Autumn Meditations" to
describe slander. (47) Meanwhile, even Stephen Owen concedes that the
evil suggestions from Heaven's Despoiler and Sky-sieve's
Tongue "more likely come from his stomach than from the
stars." (48) Thus, Meng's concluding attempts to
"deploy" words against slaughter mark an internal struggle
against his own appetites as well as a protest against slaughter in the
outside world. Standing wildlife watch till dark, Meng also keeps vigil
on himself. As night falls for the only time in this grim sequence, Meng
realizes his protest has failed.
Meng Jiao wrote of himself during this period of life:
A whole life--squawking in vain; Neither
remonstrance, nor admonishment. (49)
Out of office in Loyang, Meng simply lacked the status for a
successful remonstrance. No wonder his protest in V fails. As we move
into VI, we find the "murderous airs don't cease to
blow." Meng rejects any "humaneness and benevolence" that
depend on force, yet force continues to rule; how have Confucian moral
values worked any miraculous change? Throughout stanzas VI-VIII, the
natural order's icy weapons--bows, choppers, and swords--continue
to hack, gouge, shear, split, and poke. Even the resident water demon,
VII's Shade-river wangliang, protests this inhuman slaughter. We
seem closer to the sardonic humor of Han Yu's "Suffering from
the Cold" or "Fire in the Luhun Mountains"--in which even
animals beg to get roasted, hoping only not to freeze--than to any
vision of a moral natural order. (50) And what constitutes Meng
Jiao's heroic, saintly act? He wails and, taking up an unspecified
weapon, hacks at the ice in a vain attempt to "bury" the
carcasses. Ritually appropriate and--no doubt--desperately sincere,
but--surely--unavailing. And where did fierce Meng's weapon come
from?
Finally, our expected Spring thaw comes, the nearly frozen
survivors bathe together, and the poet takes another purifying rinse. To
some this represents a triumph of human moral intervention. But
we--perceiving in "Wintry Creek's" natural order only
amoral indifference--linger over Meng's final line, and his parting
gaze at the creek: "I first rouse this hundred-battled body."
How has Meng concluded? With "vie," with "sword
gashes," with "remnant" and "done" [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and--instead of the expected bainian shen
"body of 100 years"--with a grislier baizhan shen, "body
of 100 battles." This round has ended, the creek has swallowed what
victims people left behind, and Meng--with one final round of actions
identifying his "body" with the creek's--has survived to
witness another round. "In my end lies my beginning." Given
the plethora of formal features linking this sequence's opening and
closing stanzas, it would take rose-colored glasses and considerable
amnesiac effort to claim any "moral victory" greater than a
beleaguered return to the world of stanza I.
Let us, too, return to our initial point in revisiting this
sequence: in Tang China--unlike in the modern West--readings that
presuppose a simple man/nature or inner/outer dichotomy do not in
general appeal much and do not particularly fit "Wintry
Creek." But, having discredited an optimistic "miracle"
reading, what would we put in its place? Why did Meng write this
sequence, and what did he hope to solve? Should we imagine he
tried--seeking comfort--to write a medieval morality play and, overcome
by internal demons, failed to prosecute it successfully? We must leave
room for uncharitable readers who might condemn "Wintry Creek"
for failing to support a sanguine reading. But perhaps we can suggest an
alternate way to make sense of Meng's considerable labors. Perhaps
he wrote the sequence as a therapeutic endeavor.
Let's recapitulate what we know about Meng Jiao ca. Spring
808. He had just lost both his sons in infancy; he had likened their
untimely deaths to the murders of a "frozen hand." Yuanhe
poets frequently use untimely cold as allegory for times "out of
joint." (51) We know, both from the modern critical testimony of
Rosenthal and Gall, and from our experience with Han Yu (not to mention
Du Fu!), that poets often turn to sequences when wrestling with
intolerable, intractable issues that a short poem or two cannot
exorcize. (52)
We also know that Meng lacked any political influence or
significant office; hence, perhaps, the failure of his attempt to
"remonstrate" in stanza V. Moreover, to perform successful
rites for the dead at family ancestral altars, you would need your
youngest son to play personator of the corpse, and an older son to play
sacrificer [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. But Meng had just lost both
his sons in infancy. If Confucian court and clan rituals could not
succeed, perhaps another form of ritual might? Recall that medieval
rites of exorcism and burial had an ancient connection. (53) Dramas
involving trance and exorcism characteristically proceed with a summons,
an accusation, an investigation, a sentencing, and the petitioning of
Heaven's troops. (54) Similarly, Meng--with his ironic
"regally inspect"--detects demonic evil under a tranquil
surface (I). A chorus of victims then indicts these predatory demons
(II--IV), leading to injunctions against slaughter, and a petition for
Heaven to stop the slaughter. Even the weapons invoked--bows, choppers,
and swords--recall the tools of an exorcist.
Now let's revisit the Shade-river/wangliang from stanza VII.
In early medieval China, court exorcists performed a grand all-purpose
Exorcism right after lunar New Year's, called the Danuo. They
called the chief exorcist the *pang sang-s, or "Scrutinizer in Four
Directions," who quells demons such as the *pang rang, *mang?
rang?, or *mang? s-jang?. (55) It fascinates that modern
critics--attracted, no doubt, by the near-homophonies among these
words--associate exorcist with demon, and predator with prey. (56) Even
better, ancient lore identified wangliang and his "brothers"
as children of a mythical thearch; the brothers all died young and got
condemned to become demons. (57) The relevant ancient Chinese texts may
not have intended a close identification among these categories, but the
grief-stricken ninth-century father, struggling to make any sense of his
sons' death, distraught and overwhelmed by any
"unseasonable" appearance of wintry death in Spring, and even
feeling a measure of guilty self-implication with Nature's ruthless
murders, might well have fused these old bits of lore and come to see
himself in the fate of the ambiguous victim-demon wangliang. Dead
infants, water demons, New Year's exorcisms, and prey-predator
hybrids could have fused in the distraught theater of Meng's mind,
resulting in a peculiar and cathartic psychodrama. This self-exorcism
may not have fully "cured" Meng, but it does illuminate Wintry
Creek's darker corners in ways that simpler miraculous morality
play readings cannot. It also illustrates a psychological truth about
people under great stress. In extremis, our ordinary "selves"
deform; fissures appear, and strange voices come through; "Meng
Jiao" may become "Fierce Harsh-white light." Critics have
observed that in poetic sequences, as poets wrestle with the intolerable
and insolvable, they explore "alternate personae." At best, a
strong poet can make of this emotional welter an "orchestrated
sensibility." (58) In a discordant way, Meng Jiao has borne out
Rosenthal and Gill's insight.
What has a second look at these sequences revealed? Well,
don't trust the tried and trite, for one. Received wisdom has Han
Yu the neo-classicist reviving Confucian values in his verse, while Meng
Jiao confidently wields the sword of Confucian ritual to magically
overcome the world's problems. (59) Yet, contrary to this
"Confucian line," we find Han Yu turning to Zhuangzi as
therapeutic text, while Meng Jiao, quite possibly frustrated with the
failure of Confucian ritual forms, surreptitiously turns to the liturgy
of religious exorcism. We aim, not to dismiss a predominantly
"Confucian" characterization of Han and Meng, but to show how
an oversimplified ideological characterization cannot adequately
illumine the dark places in their poetic praxis. For example, when
Meng's "Wintry Creek" does rely on Confucian Classics, he
often wields the "Deviant Royal Odes" from the Confucian Odes
to climax his weave. His close to IV. 14: "Look up and sue: when
will bring peace" recalls a protest against Heaven from the
"Deviant Odes" (191.9): "You no-good vast heaven, My
king's not at peace". We may add that the common rhyme word
"peace" remains conspicuously absent from stanza IV! Then in V
Meng's climactic diatribe against heavenly slanders borrows
star-tropes from "Deviant Odes" #203 and #200. #200 in
particular takes a vicious tone and concludes by acknowledging its
author, a certain Mr. Meng. Meng's ensuing failure (V.22) to
"fully deploy" also suggests the useless stellified
Weaving-maid from #203.7, who "cannot finish her pattern."
Even Meng's agonized fish (VII.2) closely resembles its suffering
precursor from Ode #192.11. Meng warbles this ode like "deviant
Ya" bards, "trembling on thin ice." Precisely these
"Deviant Odes" lie farthest from the usual "amiable and
magnanimous" mode favored by mainline aesthetics. They represent
the Canon in its least Confucian spirit.
We need to expand how we view their intellectual resources, because
desperate poets seeking therapy will not stop at orthodox methods. We
also should keep in mind that Han Yu and Meng Jiao stayed in close
contact, especially during the years 807-10, when both lived in Loyang
and wrote poems together. It seems natural that their great sequences
might have a common problematic. Han Yu's inner journey features
the kind of involved introspection we might associate with
psychoanalysis, while Meng Jiao, faced with a minor drama that touches
him where it hurt most, hyperbolically imagines Universal Evil
threatening all. He then enacts something like a weird psychodrama to
exorcize this evil. A worried friend would have cautioned Han
"don't take things so much to heart!" That same friend
might have told Meng: "don't make such a big deal over
nothing!"
At this point, weary readers might agree: these Tang poetry
sequences are deep, difficult, distinctive, and demanding. They plumb
psychological depths; they explore difficult corners of poetics and
interpretation; each finds its distinctive structure; yet all make
demands that seem to exact as much from readers as they did from their
authors. We vividly remember the final months before our book on Du Fu
appeared; due to a forced late acquaintance with C. H. Wang's From
Ritual to Allegory, we did not grasp in time the close filiation of Du
Fu's "Autumn Arousal" with the eight-stanza, eight-line
paeans to King Wen (and admonitions against misrule) from the Grand
Capital Odes. (60) These Tang "Grand Capital Odes," too, make
it hard to see their full pattern. As de Man said, and he should have
known, "insight involves blindness." If Tang poetry sequences
continually humble and overthrow even the ablest interpreters, we will
simply have to acquiesce, since recognizing our fallibility only
underscores the inexhaustibility and magnificent charms of Tang poetry.
David McCraw
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
(1.) See the classic study by Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner,
Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1961), 319-28.
(2.) M. L. Rosenthal and Sally Gall, The Modern Poetic Sequence:
The Genius of Modern Poetry (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1983), esp.
6-24, 102-7, 178-83.
(3.) David McCraw, Du Fu's Laments from the South (Honolulu:
Hawai'i Univ. Press, 1992), chapters 9-11 and conclusion, pp.
231-39.
(4.) For modern editions of Han Yu's sequence, see esp. Qian
Zhonglian, Han Changli shi xinian jishi (Shanghai: Shanghai guji
chubanshe, 1957); Shimizu Shigeru, Kan Yu (Chugoku shijin senshu ed.,
vol. 11; Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1958); and Harada Kenyu, Kan Yu (Hanshi
taikei vol. 11; Tokyo: Shueisha, 1966). Readers should pay these
editions careful attention, not only for their own merit, but because
they form the armature for Stephen Owen's work (see n. 5). Among
several recent Meng Jiao editions, Hua Chenzhi et al., eds., Meng Jiao
shi ji jianzhu (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1995), and Hao Shifeng
ed., Meng Jiao shi ji jianzhu (Shijiazhuang: Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe,
2002), have proved especially helpful. Skeptics may question how Han Yu
could have acquired a sense of poetic sequence. They perhaps forget that
Du Fu had written his great sequences (esp. "Autumn Arousal")
just forty years before Han Yu's sequence "Autumn
Meditations." Han Yu, Du Fu's first great champion, would very
likely have seen them and shared them with his close poetic companion,
Meng Jiao.
(5.) Adam Gopnik, "June, Moon, Tune: What is this Thing Called
Love?" The New Yorker (July 6, 2015): 80.
(6.) Stephen Owen, The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yu (New Haven:
Yale Univ. Press, 1975 [henceforth "MCHY"]), 140-52 (Meng) and
254-69 (Han). We do not essay detailed comparisons between these
sequences and those of Du Fu, because each sequence follows its own
inner logic; like snowflakes, no two look alike. Also, we have not
pursued detailed comparisons with linked verse, because the two forms
differ greatly. You might fruitfully compare the relationship between a
poetic sequence and linked verses to the relationship between a song-
cycle and a jazz session. In the former, someone through-composes the
sequence for maximum coherence; in the latter, coherence largely arises
from the skill participants display in responding to the previous
phrase. Global coherence rarely occurs, except as a song's
structure guides it. On linked verses by Meng Jiao and Han Yu, see MCHY,
chapter 7. For the classic treatment of Japanese linked verse (renga),
see Earl Miner, Japanese Linked Poetry: An Account with Translations of
Renga and Haikai Sequences (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1979).
(7.) Here we refer to the stanzaic analogue of anadiplosis--a word
used at the end of a sentence, then used again at the beginning of the
next sentence. Chinese speak of a carry-over stitch, where you
"carry-over" yam from one needle to another without knitting
it in; you can tuck the yam into the next row--the classic "carry-
over," an etymological equivalent for anadiplosis (doubling,
tucking) and for [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (keep one stitch--or
word, in poetry--and carry it over to the next row--or line, in verse).
Some would prefer to call this simply a figural motif.
(8.) Ancient Chinese reconstructions (underlined; marked with
asterisk) largely follow those in Axel Schuessler, ABC Etymological
Dictionary of Old Chinese (Honolulu: Hawai'i Univ. Press, 2006).
Middle Chinese reconstructions (underlined; no asterisk) follow those of
William Baxter: http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu (accessed
throughout 2009-10). When not foregrounding medieval Chinese soundplay,
we have used Modern Standard Mandarin spellings, in pinyin.
(9.) See David Hawkes, Songs of the South (Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1959), 93.
(10.) MCHY; compare Charles Hartman, "Language and Allusion in
the Poetry of Han Yu" (Ph.D diss., Indiana Univ., Bloomington,
1974). Hartman's discussion of an "allusive field" that
helps integrate Autumn Meditations as "a set" (p. xii) in a
sense foreshadows our own project.
(11.) Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi, 240; cf. Yan Shoulian,
"Cong Yuanhe shifeng zhi bian kan Han Liu shi" Wenxueyichan
1987.4: 80-87; Zhang Qinghua, Han Yu nianpu huizheng (Nanjing: Jiangsu
jiaoyu, 1998), 2: 227-28. Compare the investigations of Hartman,
"Language and Allusion," 181-93, and Han Yu and the Tang
Search for Unity (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986), 68.
(12.) Zhuangzi yinde, Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index
Series 20 (Beiping: Harvard Yenching Institute, 1947, rpt. Taibei 1966).
(13.) On the phonological equivalence of *het khjut and *het grut,
see the gloss of Ma Xulun quoted in A. C. Graham, Chuang-tzu: Textual
Notes to a Partial Translation (London: School of Oriental and African
Studies, 1982), 10.
(14.) Yin Zhongrong, annot., Liishi chunqiu jiaoshi (Zhonghua
congshu weiyuanhui: Tai bei, 1958).
(15.) Qian Zhonglian, (Han Changli shi, 244) offers a plausible
political interpretation of IX. Cf. Lu Tong's lunar fable, partly
translated in A. C. Graham, Poems of the Late Tang (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1965), 81-88. Cf. n. 46, and compare Han's great
"South Alps" (Nan shan shi), in which the vision of a dragon
in a pool provides Han an epiphany--see the discussion in MCHY, 207-8.
(16.) Hartman, "Language and Allusion," 160.
(17.) Zhuangzi 18.29. Compare Xunzi 4.42.
(18.) Ge Lifang (quoted in Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi, 241)
observes how Han's problem posed in V receives a deeper treatment
in X.
(19.) Not everyone sees sequences the same way. Later Chinese
critics did not always catch Tang writers' drift; for example, Chen
Hang (1785-1825) tried to reorganize "Autumn Meditations"
according to the sequence II, IV, IX, VIII, I, VII, III, XI, V, X, VI
(Shi bixingjian [Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1981], 202-6; thanks
to an anonymous reader for calling this scheme to my attention). To
refute Chen would waste much ink; let's just say it has roughly the
same power to convince as his political allegorization of the Mao Odes.
Skeptical readers should compare his argument with mine.
(20.) Compare MCHY, 261, who observes that Han's closing
responses in stanzas I-V contradict each other.
(21.) MCHY, 262.
(22.) For full-color charts in this article, please visit
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mccraw/han%20yu@20meng%20jiaoyuanhegraph.pdf
(23.) On fantasy and the bizarre in Han and Meng's poetry,
see--inter alia--MCHY, chapters 11-12; also Liu Jiankun, "Lun Han
Yu Meng Jiao shi de qi zhi bu tong" Zhongguo xiaowai jiaoyu 2008.8:
1046/1054.
(24.) Zhuangzi 25.20ff.
(25.) Zhuangzi 20.38.
(26.) We'll spare readers Derridean excurses on the quirk that
reference to fleeing Lin Hui |e] ("grove return") gets
followed by closural return to Han's opening paired tree motif!
(27.) Zhuangzi 24.110.
(28.) Zhuangzi 23.51. The precise phrasing owes more to the version
in Liishi chunqiu, 384,
(29.) Zhuangzi 20.61
(30.) See the treatment by John Makeham, "Between Chen and
Cai: Zhuangzi and the Analects," in Wandering at Ease in the
Zhuangzi, ed. Roger Ames (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1998),
75-100.
(31.) Unsurprisingly, Han's Zhuangzian resolve has completely
escaped modern Chinese commentators, who persist in labeling Han as
"Confucian" tout court (e.g., Bi Baokui Han Meng shipai yanjiu
[Shenyang: Liaoning daxue chubanshe, 2000], esp. 77-79) and who try to
read "Autumn Meditations" purely as a "talented scholar
finds no patronage" lament (Wang Dehua, "Lun Han Yu shige de
shuqing xing," Yantai daxue xuebao, 2004.4: 213-14).
(32.) Zhuangzi 6.88; 13.12; 22.80.
(33.) See You Xinxiong, Meng Jiao yanjiu (Taibei: Wenjin chubanshe,
1984), 37-38. The Tang Histories record no especially heavy wintry
weather in early Spring of either year; see Jiu Tangshu 14.420 (807) or
14.424 (808); but on late-Tang drier, cooler weather, see Brian Fagan,
The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
(London: Bloomsbury Press, 2008), esp. 222-24.
(34.) Stanza V mentions sun and moon in the sky at once, implying
the week before a full moon. A full moon occurred on Feb. 14, 808 (first
lunar month).
(35.) MCHY, 140.
(36.) In medieval texts, Heaven's Despoiler also got written
as Heaven's Slanderer, associated with witches and sorcerers. See
the discussion in Hua Chenzhi, Meng Jiao shi, 236-37.
(37.) If we take [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] to mean
Confucius, we have an allusion to Analects 19.7; if we take it to mean
"greatly," we have an equally plausible allusion to Ode 193.1.
A remarkable double entendre!
(38.) On the denser image-weave in Meng Jiao's (versus Han
Yu's) sequences, see, for example, Yu Nianhu, "Han Meng
'Qiuhuai' shi yixiang bijiao", Suiyuan shizhuan xuebao
2003.3: 53-54.
(39.) MCHY, 141.
(40.) MCHY, 138 and 149.
(41.) Thanks to my Uncle Howard, who spent half a lifetime hunting
and then preserving ducks along the Atlantic coast, for confirming my
speculations about III.3-5. Cf. MCHY, 143.
(42.) Stephen Owen, Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics: Omen of
the World (Madison: Wisconsin Univ. Press, 1985), 133-37.
(43.) MCHY, 154-57.
(44.) See MCHY, 155, which observes that Meng Jiao projects his
feelings onto his poetic worlds.
(45.) Worth elaborating that Meng likely adapted his name-punning
from Han Yu's "Autumn Meditations." In V. 5 Han
(introspectively seeking a reclusive path) covertly punned on his
cognomen tuizhi "retreat and proceed" by writing tuijiu, also
"retreat and proceed." Then in VII.8 when trying to grope
toward personal response, he heard his notes as yu dan, "even
fainter." Yu, Han's given name, trailed by only a few lines
his repetition of the sounds han and han ("remorse" and
"wintry"; the rhyme-word "remorse" ending VII.4).
Meng intensifies his own psychodrama by placing his name-punning closer
together.
(46.) For a typical poetic example, see Han Yu's
"Suffering from Winter" (Qian Zhonglian, Han Changli shi,
74-76; compare MCHY, 212-13), discussed in Bi Baokui, Han Meng shipai
yanjiu, 11. For other characteristic Meng Jiao examples, see, e.g.,
"Song of the Commoners in a Wintry Land" Sfifklf (Hua Chenzhi,
Meng Jiao shi, 125) and "Song Suffering from Wintry Cold" (Hua
Chenzhi, Meng Jiao shi, 16). Hao Shifeng, rather leadfootedly, reads
"Wintry Creek" as political allegory from beginning to end;
see his Meng Jiao shi ji jianzhu, 232-41.
(47.) V.12; XV. 16; the latter usage closes his great meditational
sequence.
(48.) MCHY, 148.
(49.) Hao Shifeng, Meng Jiao shi ji jianzhu, 406.
(50.) For these poems, see MCHY, 212-20.
(51.) See n. 40 and also Meng's "Song of the Wintry
Jiang" (Quart Tang shi 11.4180) and his "Autumn
Meditations," esp. stanzas II and V.
(52.) See, in particular, Rosenthal and Gall, The Modern Poetic
Sequence, 101, 164, 411, etc.
(53.) See Edward L. Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song
China (Honolulu: Hawai'i Univ. Press, 2001), 15-16, 186-90.
(54.) Ibid., Chapter 3-4. Compare the treatment of la
("interrogation/injunction") in judicial inquiry and exorcism,
noted in Mark Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: State
Univ. of New York Press, 1999), 23, and the sources mentioned in his
note.
(55.) Here we telescope the treatment in Derk Bodde, Festivals in
Classical China: New Year and Other Annual Observances during the Han
Dynasty, 206 B.C.-A.D. 220 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1975),
74-117.
(56.) See esp. Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, 114-17. The
phonological resemblances among these words will convince some readers
Meng could have associated them. Observe that all binomes begin with
labials and, in their second syllables, begin with dentals (either
liquid or sibilant). Even an ancient phonologist would allow that
homorganic sounds often characterize twin words. On the general tendency
in medieval Daoism to blend god and demon, see Qian Zhongshu, Guanzhui
bian (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1978), 1.183-84. For more specific
stories blending god and demon in exorcistic contexts, see the tales of
Zhongkui and the "Three Audiences." On Zhongkui, see Steven
Little, "The Demon Queller and the Art of Qiu Ying," Artibus
Asie 46.1-2 (1985): 5- 128. For the "Three Audiences," see
Shangqing lingbao (early fifteenth c.), Zangwai daoshu edn., 24.23a.
Another striking blend of demon and god occurs in the Shangqing use of
"demon examiners" in the celestial bureaucracy (at the level
of Celestial Examiners) to test, "guarantee and recommend"
aspirants for celestial office; see Shawn Eichman, "Converging
Paths: A Study of Daoism during the Six Dynasties, with Emphasis on the
Celestial Master Movement and the Scriptures of Highest Clarity"
(PhD diss., Univ. of Hawai'i, 1999), 209-19. Thanks to Poul
Anderson for help with this footnote.
(57.) Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, 104.
(58.) Rosenthal and Gall, The Modern Poetic Sequence, 235, 98.
(59.) On neo-classical Confucian revival, see MCHY, esp. 2-23.
Chinese critics unanimously share this view. Some contemporary Chinese
critics have, however, stressed other elements in Meng Jiao's
verse. For example, see Xie Jianzhong, "Daojiao yu Meng Jiao de
shige," Wenxue yichan 1992.2: 42-50 (and other similar articles by
Xie), esp. p. 50, where Xie observes the religious Daoist influence on
Meng's weirder side. Cf. similar findings in Ma Benteng, "Meng
Jiao de shige chuangzuo yu daojia jingshen," Xinan shifan daxue
xuebao 2005.5: 167-71. For the locus classicus identifying Buddhist
influence on Meng's verse, see Wen Yiduo, Wen Yiduo quanji
(Wuchang: Renmin, 1982), 4: 6.56. For recent studies elaborating on the
considerable Buddhist influence in Meng's verse, see especially Xie
Jianzhong, "Lun fojiao kuti yu Meng Jiao de shige fengmao,"
Zunyi shifan xuebao 1996.6: 15- 20 (and similar studies by Xie); and
Zhang Chuanfeng, "Shi jing rujiao wu, jian yu fosheng qin--Meng
Jiao yu fojiao," Huzhou shizhuan xuebao 1996.2: 30-36, esp. 31-32.
(60.) See McCraw, Du Fu's Laments from the South, 232, for
this sin of omission.
Table 1. Links across stanzas (most data in Chinese, for
compression's sake), Han Yu, "Autumn Meditations" (22)
category images Poem II II
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sun/day [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
moon [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
old/now
mom/ eve [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality life/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
death/ REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
end ... IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
fates [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
biota plants [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
language [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+- service
sustenance [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 9 7
category images III IV
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sun/day [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moon
old/now [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
mom/ eve [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
mortality life/ [TEXT NOT
death/ REPRODUCIBLE
end ... IN ASCII]
fates
biota plants
critters [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
language [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+- service [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sustenance [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 8 9
category images V VI
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sun/day [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
moon [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
old/now [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mom/ eve [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
elements wind ...
mortality life/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
death/ REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
end ... IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
fates
biota plants [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
language [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+- service [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sustenance [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 10 10
category images VII VII
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sun/day
moon [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
old/now [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mom/ eve [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality life/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
death/ REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
end ... IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
fates
biota plants [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
language [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+- service [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sustenance [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 15 16
category images IX X
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sun/day [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
moon [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
old/now [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
mom/ eve [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
mortality life/ [TEXT NOT
death/ REPRODUCIBLE
end ... IN ASCII]
fates
biota plants [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
critters
language [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
+- service [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sustenance [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
tot links 14 9
category images XI
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sun/day [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
moon
old/now
mom/ eve [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
mortality life/ [TEXT NOT
death/ REPRODUCIBLE
end ... IN ASCII]
fates [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
biota plants [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
language [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sound
sight/eye [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
subjective feelings
thoughts
empty [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+- service
sustenance [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
tot links 5
22. For full-color charts in this article, please visit
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mccraw/han%20yu%20meng%20jia0yuanhegraph.pdf
Table 2. Links across stanzas, Meng Jiao, "Wintry Creek"
category images Poem I II
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
freeze/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
melt REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
bright/ dark [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
wash REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
biota plants [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
misc. thing/word
language [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
+-service [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sustenance/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
gluttony REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 17 15
category images III IV
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
freeze/ [TEXT NOT
melt REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
bright/ dark [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
wash REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
biota plants [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
misc. thing/word
language [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sight/eye [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+-service
sustenance/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
gluttony REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 17 16
category images V VI
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
freeze/ [TEXT NOT
melt REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
bright/ dark [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
wash REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
biota plants
critters [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
misc. thing/word
language [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sound [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sight/eye
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
thoughts [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
empty [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+-service [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sustenance/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
gluttony REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 17 9
category images VII VIII
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
freeze/ [TEXT NOT
melt REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
bright/ dark [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
wash REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
biota plants
critters [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
misc. thing/word
language [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
sound
sight/eye [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
subjective feelings [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
thoughts
empty [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
still
+-service [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sustenance/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
gluttony REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 12 14
category images IX
[TEXT NOT season [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
freeze/ [TEXT NOT
melt REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
bright/ dark [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
elements wind ... [TEXT NOT
wash REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
mortality [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
[TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
biota plants [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
critters [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
misc. thing/word
language
sound
sight/eye
subjective feelings
thoughts
empty [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
negative [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
moving +/[-] [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
still [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
+-service [TEXT NOT
REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII]
sustenance/ [TEXT NOT [TEXT NOT
gluttony REPRODUCIBLE REPRODUCIBLE
IN ASCII] IN ASCII]
tot links 14
